I am curious and exasperated by Malaysia's official responses to the decision of the international community via the United Nations to censure countries discriminating and persecuting the LBGTQ (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and queers) community.

I believe Malaysia hosted an international conference of Muslim leaders in May last year, chaired by Marina Mahathir of the Malaysian Aids Council. The conference emphasised the elimination of stigmatisation. Stigmatisation arises from criminalisation and discrimination of our marginalised communities which includes the LBGTQ community.

I read in malaysiakini in recent weeks that DBKL is mulling legislation on transvestites, "to monitor and legalise their activities". On the face of it, this is a laudable effort by DBKL.

The recent responses to attack the UN decision by Dr Rais Yatim , the president of the Bar Council and Simon Sipaun of Suhakam appear ignorant in view of the prior concerns.

I checked and found that a senior member of the Bar, supposedly representing the Malaysian Bar sits in the Malaysian Aids Council Board.

Last year the human rights subcommittee of the Malaysian Bar had a workshop on HIV-Aids where concerns on stigmatisation and its attendant ills were aired. The response of the president of the Bar Council is obviously ill-informed. Granted he is presently embroiled in a feud about postal ballots at the last council elections, but that is no excuse to be ignorant of what is going on at the Bar in its commitment to these human rights concerns.

Obviously Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has to ascertain that his ministers are kept abreast of developments at home. Shame on Rais.

Did not a group of concerned people send Suhakam a memorandum last year on related concerns? Shame on Sipaun.